Nutritional consequences of a change in diet from native to agricultural fruits for the Samoan fruit bat

The Samoan fruit bat Pteropus samoensis Peale, an endemic flying fox that i nhabits the Samoan archipelago, prefers to forage on native fruit species. This species has recently been subjected to extreme population threats incl uding hunting and severe storms, as well as large-scale habitat degradation . If habitat destruction continues at its present rate, P. samoensis may be forced to forage more within an agricultural matrix. In this study, we ana lyzed sixteen species of native fruits and four species of agricultural fru its for five organic components and eight minerals to test whether native f ruits provided a higher quality diet or more varied diet than agricultural fruits. Within native fruits, we also focused on four species of figs, beca use these fruits are often considered an important food item for tropical f rugivores. Overall, native fruits provided more variation and had higher av erage values for several nutrients than agricultural fruits. Native fruits were especially high in biologically important minerals (calcium, iron, and sodium), and provided up to 5 times more calcium, 10.5 times more iron, an d 8 times more sodium than agricultural fruits. Figs were found to be an es pecially rich source of many nutrients, particularly for calcium. Thus, P. samoensis, a sequential specialist, may be better able to adjust its diet t o obtain higher levels of minerals when consuming a variety of native fruit s than when restricted to the consumption of only agricultural fruits. Thes e findings suggest a need to preserve native habitat and to create parks to sustain the long term health and viability of P. samoensis.